1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to computer peripheral support equipment, and more particularly, but not by way of limitation, to processing equipment for high speed handling of large volumes of jacketed diskettes which are to be tested, or to be loaded with software, and then selectively placed in bins for storage or other disposition.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
The development of computer technology has included the advancement and treatment of various types of associated equipment, often referred to as computer peripherals. Such peripherals include diskette handling structures which have undertaken to test or to load software onto diskettes of the type widely used in microcomputers.
In the mass handling of these diskettes used as memory devices for many microcomputers, the diskettes, also called floppy disks, are comprised of a magnetically coated vinyl disk which is flexible and fragile. Because of these characteristics, the disk media is placed in a protective jacket or cover. The jacket or cover is provided with a centrally located hole for access to the disk which has a drive pole that is shaped to be placed over the driving spindle of a disk drive apparatus. The jacket in which the disk is located is sufficiently large that the disk can freely rotate while the jacket is maintained in a fixed position within the disk drive apparatus. The disk contains a material which can be selectively magnetized in a computer readable format, and serves as both a temporary and a permanent memory bank for many computers. A support industry has developed to supply diskettes which contain predetermined computer structures, known as software, with such being supplied to users of many computers. Also, jacketed diskettes are sold for word processing and other data handling uses in the large number of minicomputers that are used by small and large businesses alike.
In order to meet the demand for such diskettes, large numbers of diskettes must be rapidly tested during the manufacturing and supply procedures. Each of the diskettes is individually tested by a computer write/read technique wherein a pre-established format is magnetically printed on the disk media, and this format is then read back for accuracy, and the disk media is then erased to become a blank diskette. A large number of such blank diskettes are then magnetically imprinted to carry a preselected set of software instructions. It becomes a matter of necessity that such diskettes be handled by devices that move them into and out of engagement with testing and software writing systems in a high speed mode, while maintaining the physical integrity of the diskette media.
Diskette loading devices have heretofore been manufactured for the purpose of holding the diskettes in large numbers, or in bulk, and then individually feeding these (loading) diskettes from a magazine, or the like, into and out of engagement with disk drive peripherals which are manufactured by a number of companies. The prior art diskette loading devices have operated by using sets of revolving pinch wheels which grip the edges of the jacket in which the diskette is encased and move the diskette in a selected path. One set of the pinch wheels is disposed to insert a diskette in one direction into the nesting channel of the disk drive apparatus. Another set of wheels is disposed to grippingly engage the diskette to reverse its path in order to retrieve the diskette from the disk drive apparatus after it has undergone testing and software imprinting. Once retrieved, the diskette is routed via pinch wheels into a selected one of a plurality of sorting bins.
Although the described diskette loaders have generally met the need for rapid processing of diskettes, the loaders require a considerable amount of maintenance in order to remain in satisfactory operating condition. Moreover, the useful service life of such loaders is generally short. Improvements in diskette loading devices are therefore needed, and are being continuously sought within the recognized desiderata that such loaders have a minimum of moving parts in order to reduce their maintenance cost, while at the same time, sufficiently accurately handling large numbers of diskettes that the apparatus can be reliably reused over a satisfactory period of time to effectively test, imprint and sort the diskette devices.